No Shelter: The Selected Poems of Pura López-Colomé

Beautifully translated by the award-winning American poet Forrest Gander, the work of highly esteemed Mexican poet Pura López-Colomé is, with this important volume, available in the US for the first time. Selected by Gander from throughout López-Colomé's five books in Spanish, these exceptional poems confront the confinements of fate, history, and misbegotten beliefs.

In forms that blur back and forth between poetry and prose, López-Colomé uses spare and honest language to describe the music of dreams, faith, and faithlessness; hers are poems of the soul resuscitated from the shackles of the body. As Gander notes in his Introduction: "[This] poetry is philosophical and exacting, pared into short, sharp lines, obsidian flakes." Indeed, the fierce intelligence and insistent moral and spiritual engagement of López-Colomé's poetry situate her among the most significant contemporary Mexican poets. No Shelter is a bilingual edition, with English translations appearing in the first half of the text and the Spanish originals in the second.

About the author (2002)

Born in Mexico City in 1952, Pura López-Colomé is the author of five books of verse in Spanish. She has also translated works by Samuel Beckett, Virginia Woolf, Seamus Heaney, and Gertrude Stein into her native language. She lives in Cueravaca with her family.

Forrest Gander is the author of many celebrated collections of experimental poetry, including Torn Awake, Deeds of Utmost Kindness, and Science & Steepleflower.